A grand jury has recommended upgrading the charges against the suspect in January’s triple homicide of tourists in Osceola County, according to State Attorney Monique Worrell.Ahmad Bojeh, 29, was arrested after three men were found shot to death in a residential subdivision near Kissimmee.>> Watch the full news conference belowDuring a news conference Thursday, Worrell said Bojeh is now facing three counts of first-degree murder. Bojeh was previously charged with second-degree murder. However, those charges were updated after a grand jury reviewed the case and returned an indictment, according to Worrell.BackgroundDeputies with the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office responded to reports of gunshots around 12:14 a.m. Jan. 17.The OCSO said there were multiple 911 calls reporting several gunshots and more than one person down.Upon arrival, deputies found the three victims at the front of the property. Osceola County Fire Rescue pronounced all three dead.The initial investigation revealed that the bullet casings and unfired cartridges were consistent with .45- and .380-caliber ammunition, according to the arrest affidavit.Witnesses told deputies that the shooter ran into the house next door and was wearing all black.Deputies detained Bojeh at 298 Indian Point Circle.
KISSIMMEE, Fla. —
A grand jury has recommended upgrading the charges against the suspect in January’s triple homicide of tourists in Osceola County, according to State Attorney Monique Worrell.
Ahmad Bojeh, 29, was arrested after three men were found shot to death in a residential subdivision near Kissimmee.
>> Watch the full news conference below
During a news conference Thursday, Worrell said Bojeh is now facing three counts of first-degree murder.
Bojeh was previously charged with second-degree murder. However, those charges were updated after a grand jury reviewed the case and returned an indictment, according to Worrell.
Background
Deputies with the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office responded to reports of gunshots around 12:14 a.m. Jan. 17.
The OCSO said there were multiple 911 calls reporting several gunshots and more than one person down.
Upon arrival, deputies found the three victims at the front of the property. Osceola County Fire Rescue pronounced all three dead.
The initial investigation revealed that the bullet casings and unfired cartridges were consistent with .45- and .380-caliber ammunition, according to the arrest affidavit.
Witnesses told deputies that the shooter ran into the house next door and was wearing all black.
Deputies detained Bojeh at 298 Indian Point Circle.
With fire pits on the beach, showers and a front-row view of the sun sinking into the Pacific, Mike and Nicole Wirth had no complaint about their $45 overnights at Dockweiler Beach.
But neither was their three-night stay there last April a quaint camping experience. Dockweiler RV Park was No. 13 of the 15 places they’ve bedded down since the Eaton fire destroyed their Altadena home last year.
Among their other sleepovers — from one night to four months — were two hotels, an Airbnb, a church parking lot, another campground, a townhome rental and three tiny guest houses — one at a co-worker’s boyfriend’s house. In between were three stays with Nicole’s parents where their precious Australian cattle dog Goose succumbed, they believe, to accumulated trauma.
Mike and Nicole Wirth in their Sprinter van in Altadena. The Wirths were displaced during the 2025 Eaton fire and have moved 15 times, including stints of camping in their van.
(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)
They were not alone. The Eaton and Palisades fires left an urban population of tens of thousands homeless in a single day. They moved in every direction, some near, some far, some — the lucky ones — only once. For many, home became an improvisation.
Sometimes Nicole stayed with her parents while Mike stayed alone at Dockweiler to be near his work in Hawthorne. It had a subtle reassuring effect.
“The van felt like the only room from our house that survived,” Mike said.
The Wirths, who are rebuilding their home and expect to move back in April, reflect the frenetic side of the complicated quest for shelter for tens of thousands whose homes were destroyed in the Eaton and Palisades fires.
Their orbit, compact but intense, was dictated by their decision to stay near his job and to oversee the reconstruction of their home.
Others moved less frequently, but often went much farther, to stabilize their lives.
Christie and Michael McIntire were grasping for anything in the San Gabriel Valley and coming up short.
“Won’t take cats. Price really high. Extremely far. Somebody got to it first,” Christie McIntire said in a phone interview.
The McIntire family walk through their new home outside Nashville. They are preparing to move in April 1.
(Diana King / For The Times)
After spending several months in two seedy rentals, the McIntires pulled the trigger on a longtime fantasy. They found a rental in Nashville. Christie flew with her two girls and the cats, and Michael drove with the dog. They’ve purchased a 3,600-square-foot suburban house to replace their 1,400-square-foot Altadena bungalow. They will move in April 1 when their current lease expires.
The lease was the first step in a multistage recovery.
“We didn’t feel homeless anymore,” Christie said. “When we found the house to buy is when we began to feel secure.”
The Eaton and Palisades fire diaspora has played out in a sunburst pattern of impromptu moves that likely will never be traced in full detail.
A blurry outline is revealed in a quarterly survey commissioned by the Department of Angels, a nonprofit created by the California Community Foundation and SNAP Inc. It has documented the broad outlines and delved into the emotional and financial stress on those who were displaced. Its latest survey, released for the fire anniversary, found that 7 out of 10 people displaced — 74% from Pacific Palisades and 65% from Altadena — are still in temporary housing, down only slightly from the third quarter.
Only about a third in both communities said they expect to remain where they are more than a year or two, and about 20% — 22% in Palisades and 17% in Altadena — said they expect to move again within the next few months or weeks, both up from September.
A sharper picture of mobility can be gleaned from those like the McIntires, who have put down roots and changed their addresses. Data provided to The Times by Melissa, a global address provider, shows that most of those displaced in the two fires stayed close to home but they also spread tendrils across the country.
(Melissa compiles the data from records including change-of-address filings with the post office, magazine subscriptions and credit card applications. The Times provided addresses of the roughly 21,800 housing units rated by Cal Fire as either destroyed or sustaining major damage. The company tied each address to the individuals living there, whether as family members or owner/renter.)
More than 83% of the 30,000 tracked by Melissa stayed within Los Angeles County, and just under 95% remained in California. The pattern was similar for both communities: 93% from Pacific Palisades and 96% from Altadena stayed in-state.
Each dot represents a new address for a person displaced by the Eaton and Palisades fires.
83% of people moving stayed within L.A. County.
Those displaced from the Eaton fire tended to move within the San Gabriel Valley, or to Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
Those displaced from the Palisades fire tended to stay near the coast.
83% of people moving stayed within L.A. County.
Those displaced from the Eaton fire tended to move within the San Gabriel Valley, or to Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
Those displaced from the Palisades fire tended to stay near the coast.
Address changes from January 2025 through Nov. 11.
melissa.com
Lorena Iñiguez Elebee LOS ANGELES TIMES
At least 1,600 people traveled to other states to make new homes. Texas (166), Florida (144) and New York (141) were their top destinations. In all, they went to 45 states with Maine and Rhode Island each receiving one. The McIntires were among 50 relocating to Tennessee.
Each dot represents a new address for a person displaced by the Eaton and Palisades fires.
The Northeast had the
most overall.
Texas and Florida were
the top destinations.
The Northeast
had the most overall.
Texas and Florida were
the top destinations.
Moves based on individuals notifying USPS of a new address or establishing credit at a new location between January 2025 and Nov. 11. Two people relocated to Puerto Rico, not shown.
The preference to stay nearby was strong. More than 2,900 people displaced by the fires relocated within the seven ZIP Codes that had almost all the destroyed and damaged homes, either directly or after an intermediary move. Pasadena was at the top of that list, followed by Altadena and Pacific Palisades.
Seven Southern California coastal counties accounted for 98% of all displaced people who stayed in California. Los Angeles County was by far the primary destination, receiving more than 25,000 people. Orange County was a distant second at 738. Outside of L.A., Palisadians tended to stay near the coast, from San Diego to Santa Barbara counties. Altadenans more often moved east in the San Gabriel Valley and to Riverside or San Bernardino counties.
How many of those moves are permanent is not known, but they reflect a cohort of the displaced population more likely to gain stability. About 3,300 were tracked through two post-fire moves, while the number moving three times dropped precipitously to 129.
While the Wirths’ 15-stop odyssey may represent an extreme, many lacked either the opportunity or desire to lay down new roots while anticipating a return to what they consider their real home.
Nicole and Mike Wirth walk their dogs outside their temporary home in Altadena.
(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)
“I never did a change of address,” said Sara Marti, whose Palisades rental was destroyed. “Whatever mail I was receiving, who knows where it went.”
Marti, her husband, Jordan Corral, and their two school-age children stayed two nights in a Marriott after evacuating. Their next move was to an Airbnb in Lancaster.
“It was a bizarre experience because it was so far from everything we knew,” she said.
Next they used insurance money to put a down payment on an RV and moved to the River’s End RV Park in Canyon Country. They thought they were settled until a crack in the gray water tank sent their home in for repairs. They moved from motel to hotel to Airbnb until she couldn’t take it anymore, Marti said. They’ve now leased an apartment in Canyon Country. Corral works locally.
The Wirths relocated 15 times since the Eaton fire damaged their home
For the first few months, their stays in each new place lasted from one night to several weeks.
After the Eaton fire, Mike and Nicole first stayed at Nicole’s parents’ house.
From Dockweiler
State Beach
From Dockweiler
State Beach
To Crystal
Cove State Park
After the Eaton fire, Mike and Nicole first stayed at Nicole’s parents’ house.
To Crystal
Cove State Park
From Dockweiler
State Beach
OpenStreetMap
Lorena Iñiguez Elebee LOS ANGELES TIMES
Marti, who works for the community environmental group Resilient Palisades — remotely now — intends to return to be near her parents who are rebuilding their destroyed house.
“I’d love to return into an apartment, assuming the pricing doesn’t go crazy,” she said.
Whether to take steps to formalize a temporary address was a decision that some debated.
Wirth, who organized a support group of AAA Insurance holders after the fire, chose not to and instead has her mail forwarded to her parents’ house.
“Today, literally, I have to move again,” she said. “What places do I change my address to?”
But Postal Service forwarding ends after a year.
“Now it’s going to be a disaster,” she said.
Landscaper Jose Cervantes, who lost his home as well as 26 of his customers in Altadena, picked up his mail at the post office for a time after the fire.
After a series of moves to Palmdale and the San Gabriel Valley, his family of five settled in an ADU in Pasadena. But they never changed their address.
Once he had made the decision to rebuild, Cervantes installed a temporary mailbox on the vacant lot. His daughter Jessica, who handles bills and insurance issues, goes there to pick up the mail.
Currently spread out over a Monrovia rental and various aunts’ houses, the family is in the process of moving into a nearly completed ADU behind their future house, which is now in the framing stage.
Jose Cervantes and his daughter Jessica outside the home they’re rebuilding in Altadena.
(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)
The quarterly surveys by the nonprofit Department of Angels give a limited view of the housing instability that still lingers a year after the fire.
The surveying firm Embold Research found in June that more than half of displaced households — 61% in Altadena and 65% in Pacific Palisades — had stayed in multiple places. About a third in both cases said they were expecting to move again soon.
So many moves only compounded the trauma of losing a home to fire.
In January, Embold reported that 44% of respondents said their mental health was much worse since the fire, up from 36% in June and September, and 39% said it was somewhat worse.
“Therapy helped,” said Christie McIntire, whose move to Tennessee restored her sense of community but still left emotional work to do.
“For the longest time I was gravitating between anger and sadness,” she said. “Happening all last year; you just feel this guilt, like you could have done something to get a different outcome.”
The McIntire family found a rental in Nashville and have now set down new roots.
(Diana King / For The Times)
Four sessions of prolonged exposure therapy, a technique used by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to treat PTSD, helped her pack the imagery into long-term memory.
“I no longer constantly think about that day,” she said.
AT THIS HOUR, AUTHORITIES IN ARIZONA ARE ASKING FOR ANY KIND OF VIDEO THAT COULD LEAD THEM TO NANCY GUTHRIE. ONE QUESTION IN THIS INVESTIGATION IS, WAS SHE KIDNAPED FOR RANSOM? THERE HAVE BEEN REPORTS OF RANSOM NOTES, BUT IT’S NOT CLEAR IF THE GUTHRIE FAMILY HAS PAID ANYTHING AT THIS POINT. WESH 2’S LINDSEY TALKED WITH A FORMER FBI AGENT ON HOW THAT COULD BE A CRITICAL PART OF THE INVESTIGATION. VERY VALUABLE TO US, AND WE WILL PAY THE MAJORITY OF US. WATCH THAT VIDEO POSTED BY SAVANNAH GUTHRIE AND HER SIBLINGS SATURDAY. AND ALL WE COULD THINK IS THAT POOR FAMILY. BUT LAW ENFORCEMENT AND TECH EXPERTS LIKE KYLE ARMSTRONG ALSO SEE AN OPPORTUNITY THERE TO BRING NANCY GUTHRIE HOME. THE PAYMENT IS MADE AND IT GOES THE BLOCKCHAIN WORLD. AT SOME POINT IT WILL BE CASHED OUT FOR FIAT CURRENCY. AND THAT’S THE OPPORTUNITY THAT LAW ENFORCEMENT WILL LOOK FOR. WHAT IS THE BLOCKCHAIN? ARMSTRONG, A FORMER FBI AGENT, NOW WORKS FOR TRM LABS, WHICH SPECIALIZES IN BLOCKCHAIN INTELLIGENCE. ANYTIME THERE’S A BITCOIN TRANSACTION, THAT TRANSACTION IS PUBLISHED ON THE OPEN INTERNET, AND THE BLOCKCHAIN IS ESSENTIALLY THE RECORDING OF THAT TRANSACTION. TRANSACTIONS ARE FROM ONE ADDRESS TO ANOTHER. AND ANONYMOUS, OFTEN 20 PLUS CHARACTERS ALPHANUMERIC THAT ARE HARD TO CRACK. THEY ARE COMPANY WORKS TO US TO FOLLOW THOSE TRANSACTIONS, TO MAKE IT EASY TO GRAPH THOSE TRANSACTIONS, AND SIMPLER TO EXPLAIN. BUT HOW QUICKLY CAN YOU TRACK IT? ONCE A TRANSACTION IS HAS BEEN MADE AND THERE IS A RECIPIENT ADDRESS, THEN YOU CAN BASICALLY FLAG THAT ADDRESS. AND THEN ANYTIME THE ASSETS MOVE, THAT FLAG WILL CARRY WITH THEM IN THE IN OUR INTERNAL SOFTWARE. AND SO EVEN IF IT MOVES TEN TIMES IN A CIRCUITOUS MANNER, WHEN THE FUNDS EVENTUALLY HIT ONE OF THESE EXCHANGES, THEY WILL KNOW. SO KYLE ARMSTRONG SAYS IF A SUSPECT DOES TRY TO WITHDRAW THAT MONEY, THE EXCHANGE WOULD THEN FREEZE IT AND IMMEDIATELY CONTACT POLICE. THAT IS REALLY INTERESTING. BUT WHAT HAPPENS IF THEY DON’T TRY TO WITHDRAW IT AND THEY TRY TO DO SOMETHING ELSE, OR BUY SOMETHING ELSE? REALLY GOOD QUESTION. BUT THINK ABOUT THIS. YOU CAN’T REALLY GO OUT RIGHT NOW AND BUY A CAR OR A HOME WITH BITCOIN. MAYBE THAT COULD HAPPEN IN THE FUTURE. EVENTUALLY YOU HAVE TO CASH SOMETHING OUT. AND IN FACT, ARMSTRONG POINTED TO A 2016 NEW YORK CASE WHERE IT’S BELIEVED A COUPLE STOLE CRYPTO BUT COULD NOT ACTUALLY SPEND IT. SO THEY STARTED BUYING UP GIFT CARDS. THE MOMENT THEY DID THAT, THERE WAS A RECORD. AND HE SAYS, YOU WILL BE
Nancy Guthrie disappearance: Former FBI agent weighs in on tracking ransom money
A former FBI agent who worked 14 years investigating illicit finance cases said the ransom note could be the opportunity to find “Today” show anchor Savannah Guthrie’s mother, Nancy.It’s unclear if the Guthrie family has agreed to pay anyone, but there were reports of two ransom notes demanding payment in Bitcoin. Kyle Armstrong, who worked for the FBI, now works for a blockchain intelligence company called TRM Labs. “If a ransom is paid, I’m certain that there will be several investigators,” Armstrong said. “When money goes in, there’s not a lot of retail use of cryptocurrency, especially a sizable amount. You really can’t buy cars. You can’t go to fancy vacations. You can’t do a lot of retail things with crypto. Ultimately, you have to exchange the cryptocurrency, primarily for fiat currency, for regular U.S. dollars, euros, whatever it is. That presents, usually, the opportunity for law enforcement to learn who is controlling this account.”When there’s a transaction, it’s from one address to another that is anonymous, but TRM Labs has a tool that can help law enforcement decipher that. “Anytime there’s a Bitcoin transaction, that transaction is published on the open Internet, and the blockchain is essentially the recording of that transaction. Our company works to follow those transactions, to make it easy to graph those transactions and simpler to explain. And then ultimately, we try to identify who’s controlling the addresses,” Armstrong said. He said there are cases where they can even flag the transaction so it can follow multiple movements. “Anytime the assets move, that flag will carry with them in the internal software. So even if it moves 10 times in a circuitous manner, when the funds eventually hit one of these exchanges, and they will know those funds have been identified by law enforcement as illicit,” Armstrong said.
A former FBI agent who worked 14 years investigating illicit finance cases said the ransom note could be the opportunity to find “Today” show anchor Savannah Guthrie’s mother, Nancy.
It’s unclear if the Guthrie family has agreed to pay anyone, but there were reports of two ransom notes demanding payment in Bitcoin.
Kyle Armstrong, who worked for the FBI, now works for a blockchain intelligence company called TRM Labs.
“If a ransom is paid, I’m certain that there will be several investigators,” Armstrong said. “When money goes in, there’s not a lot of retail use of cryptocurrency, especially a sizable amount. You really can’t buy cars. You can’t go to fancy vacations. You can’t do a lot of retail things with crypto. Ultimately, you have to exchange the cryptocurrency, primarily for fiat currency, for regular U.S. dollars, euros, whatever it is. That presents, usually, the opportunity for law enforcement to learn who is controlling this account.”
When there’s a transaction, it’s from one address to another that is anonymous, but TRM Labs has a tool that can help law enforcement decipher that.
“Anytime there’s a Bitcoin transaction, that transaction is published on the open Internet, and the blockchain is essentially the recording of that transaction. Our company works to follow those transactions, to make it easy to graph those transactions and simpler to explain. And then ultimately, we try to identify who’s controlling the addresses,” Armstrong said.
He said there are cases where they can even flag the transaction so it can follow multiple movements.
“Anytime the assets move, that flag will carry with them in the internal software. So even if it moves 10 times in a circuitous manner, when the funds eventually hit one of these exchanges, and they will know those funds have been identified by law enforcement as illicit,” Armstrong said.
Florida’s Chief Financial Officer, Blaise Ingoglia, announced a new legislative proposal on Thursday to make local government more accountable and transparent. According to Ingoglia, 11 local governments are projected to have spent $1.6 billion wastefully over the last year. Some of these include $190 million in Orange County, $112 million in Manatee County, $301 million in Miami, $344 million in Palm Beach County and $22 million in Orlando.Ingoglia said local governments are doing this to make excuses to raise property taxes. To protect taxpayers from excessive local government spending, Ingoglia proposed to formally establish the Florida Agency for Fiscal Oversight (FAFO) in state law.The CFO’s legislative proposal: Codifies the “Florida Agency for Fiscal Oversight” in Florida statute to increase accountability and transparency in local government and make this effort a long-term, permanent initiative. Requires both state and local government employees to complete FAFO training on how to report waste, fraud, and abuse. Requires each local government to submit an annual Financial Efficiency Report. Grants government employees, contractors, subcontractors, and taxpayers whistleblower protection if they contact DFS to report waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayer dollars. Allows DFS to pursue financial penalties from local governments if they don’t respond to inquiries promptly, including by withholding any state funds until they do. Obligates local governments to upload all government contracts into the state’s FACTS system or something similar that is searchable and indexed. Codifies the ability of Florida’s CFO to recommend the removal of any elected official who is found to have committed financial abuse, malfeasance or misfeasance. Requires DFS to audit local governments if they propose to raise taxes via referendum.”My legislative proposal will codify much-needed reforms that will positively impact future generations. Government grows when people stop watching, and bureaucrats stop caring. Through my proposal, we will ensure that someone is always watching how your hard-earned tax dollars are spent,” Ingoglia said in a new press release.
WINTER PARK, Fla. —
Florida’s Chief Financial Officer, Blaise Ingoglia, announced a new legislative proposal on Thursday to make local government more accountable and transparent.
According to Ingoglia, 11 local governments are projected to have spent $1.6 billion wastefully over the last year.
Some of these include $190 million in Orange County, $112 million in Manatee County, $301 million in Miami, $344 million in Palm Beach County and $22 million in Orlando.
Ingoglia said local governments are doing this to make excuses to raise property taxes.
To protect taxpayers from excessive local government spending, Ingoglia proposed to formally establish the Florida Agency for Fiscal Oversight (FAFO) in state law.
The CFO’s legislative proposal:
Codifies the “Florida Agency for Fiscal Oversight” in Florida statute to increase accountability and transparency in local government and make this effort a long-term, permanent initiative.
Requires both state and local government employees to complete FAFO training on how to report waste, fraud, and abuse.
Requires each local government to submit an annual Financial Efficiency Report.
Grants government employees, contractors, subcontractors, and taxpayers whistleblower protection if they contact DFS to report waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayer dollars.
Allows DFS to pursue financial penalties from local governments if they don’t respond to inquiries promptly, including by withholding any state funds until they do.
Obligates local governments to upload all government contracts into the state’s FACTS system or something similar that is searchable and indexed.
Codifies the ability of Florida’s CFO to recommend the removal of any elected official who is found to have committed financial abuse, malfeasance or misfeasance.
Requires DFS to audit local governments if they propose to raise taxes via referendum.
“My legislative proposal will codify much-needed reforms that will positively impact future generations. Government grows when people stop watching, and bureaucrats stop caring. Through my proposal, we will ensure that someone is always watching how your hard-earned tax dollars are spent,” Ingoglia said in a new press release.
As Election Day approached, social media users shared a video of a man who said he planned to vote multiple times in New York City.
“I’m here in New York about to illegally vote for Zohran Mamdani six times,” the man in the TikTok video reshared on X says as he walks down a city street.
The caption of the Nov. 2 X post says, “VOTER FRAUD ALERT!! This guy just admitted he was on his way to ILLEGALLY vote for Mamdani six times! I live in (New York state) & there’s no ID requirement, you just sign your name. He could just lie about his address & vote in multiple precincts!”
This video, sharedwidely, is misleading. It was originally published Oct. 29 on TikTok by a punk rock band member who wrote in the comments that he was “purposefully (spreading) misinformation over the internet.”
Voter ID is required to register to vote in New York. State law prohibits people from voting more than once. A law that permits registered voters to cast ballots without showing their IDs at the polling site does not change that.
Mamdani, a New York State assemblymember and Democratic Socialist, won the Democratic primary election in the New York City mayoral race. He faces former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a longtime Democrat who is running as an independent after losing to Mamdani in the primary, and Republican Curtis Sliwa, a Republican, in the Nov. 4 election.
Who can vote in the New York general election?
Before people can cast a ballot, they must register to vote. That involves providing identification, such as a New York driver’s license number or a Social Security number, and attesting that the information they are providing is correct. The state’s voter eligibility laws require that a person:
Be a U.S. citizen.
Be at least 18 years old.
Be a resident of the state, county, city or village for at least 30 days before the election.
Not be in prison for a felony conviction.
Not be adjudged mentally incompetent by a court.
Not claim the right to vote elsewhere, meaning that the person is not registered to vote in another state, county or municipality in the U.S.
Kathleen McGrath,a New York State Board of Elections spokesperson, told PolitiFact in a Nov. 3 email that sometimes a person who didn’t meet verification requirements while seeking to register shows up at a poll site seeking to vote. In those instances, elections officials require the person to present valid identification on site.
All voters must provide their signatures when voting as a means of voter ID, under the New York State Constitution Article II, Section 7. Poll workers confirm a voter’s identity by matching their signature to official records.
The County Board of Elections, which conducts local elections, operates voting sites and maintains voter registration lists, uses electronic pollbooks to check in voters at poll sites. The poll books are updated in real time as people cast ballots. If a voter has checked in at a poll site, they would be unable to check-in at another poll site during the same election.
Erica Smitka, executive director of the League of Women Voters of New York State, told PolitiFact in a Nov. 4 email that because voting records are constantly changing, all voter list maintenance is conducted by bipartisan teams to ensure the process is fair, accurate, and transparent.
“Another person cannot just say a voter’s name and vote on their behalf,” McGrath said.
Doing so would also require forging the voter’s signature.
“That action would be a felony,” McGrath said.
McGrath said that if a voter has requested a mail ballot, they will be unable to cast a ballot in person on a machine and must complete a provisional ballot. Post-election, the County Board of Elections conducts an audit to ensure all ballots cast via affidavit are not from voters who have already cast another ballot.
If people are not registered to vote, they will be turned away.
Donald Trump encountered some of these safeguards first-hand in 2004, years before he ran for president. “Access Hollywood” followed him as he sought to vote in New York City. The show captured him being turned away from various polling sites because poll workers said he wasn’t registered to vote at those locations. Access Hollywood said Trump ultimately filled out a provisional ballot in the backseat of a car, after learning that his issues related to his son Donald Trump Jr.’s change of address.
McGrath said voting fraud is a rare occurrence because of the Boards of Elections record keeping.
“Because Boards of Elections keep permanent, individualized records of which elections a person participates in, the probability of detection after the fact is exceedingly high,” McGrath said. She said this is likely why there is little evidence in the U.S. of voter fraud-related crimes.
Our ruling
An X post said, New York state has “no ID requirement” to vote, and people could lie about their address and “vote in multiple precincts.”
New York voters are not required to present ID when voting, but they are required to present valid ID to register to vote. State law includes numerous safeguards to prevent anyone from casting more than one ballot in an election — and doing so is a felony. Poll workers confirm voters’ identities by matching their signatures to official records.
The statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. We rate it Mostly False.
The Gloucester Daily Times aims to be accurate. If you are aware of a factual error in a story, please call Times Editor Andrea Holbrook at 978-675-2713.
A quotation in a story, “At-large candidates debate spending,” published Monday online and in print, requires correction. “So there is not a lot of slack to play with,” said incumbent Councilor at-Large candidate Jason Grow during a debate at the Lanesville Community Center on Thursday, Oct. 16.
A Lake County Sheriff’s Office employee is facing charges for accessing law enforcement databases to look into people unrelated to her work.According to a report from the sheriff’s office, 30-year-old Hannah Colon worked for the sheriff’s office in dispatch and as a clerk in the criminal investigations division.”On October first, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office received allegations that Ms. Hannah Colon was accessing various law enforcement databases that are restricted,” Deputy Stephanie Early with the sheriff’s office said.After the sheriff’s office started looking into Colon’s use of law enforcement databases, a probable cause affidavit says they questioned Colon about running two different names through the Driver and Vehicle Information Databases on three different dates. The names belonged to her husband and her husband’s ex-wife, the report says.The affidavit says in April 2023, she looked at the ex-wife’s record on things like vehicles, addresses, transaction details and driver history.According to the affidavit, she told deputies it was to access the woman’s address to apply for an order of protection against her, which she did in June 2023.The deputy pointed out she could have gotten the information from her husband.The sheriff’s office says the use is concerning.”We are only supposed to use our databases for authorized use only,” Deputy Early said. “So the fact that there are employees, that this could happen, is very concerning for us, and we make sure that this does not happen again.”Something Colon isn’t facing charges for, but the probable cause affidavit says “compounded” investigators’ suspicions, was observations from coworkers. The document says Colon had recently asked a homicide detective questions about an upcoming homicide trial while wearing new glasses that have the capability to record. It says that coworkers knew Colon was Facebook friends with the defendant in that trial, Darion McGee, who the report says is a suspect in two Lake County homicides.One appears to be the killing of Mustafa Connelly. Connelly was found shot and set on fire in a vacant lot in the Leesburg area in December 2021. McGee pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder charges in May 2023. According to court records, that trial was set to start Tuesday.The sheriff’s office couldn’t say if they believed Colon shared any information with anyone involved in the case. When asked if Colon’s questions regarding the trial were being investigated any further, Early said, “The investigation is still ongoing. She is on unpaid leave at the moment.”Colon was released on bond. WESH 2 attempted to contact Colon but did not hear back Tuesday night.
LAKE COUNTY, Fla. —
A Lake County Sheriff’s Office employee is facing charges for accessing law enforcement databases to look into people unrelated to her work.
According to a report from the sheriff’s office, 30-year-old Hannah Colon worked for the sheriff’s office in dispatch and as a clerk in the criminal investigations division.
“On October first, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office received allegations that Ms. Hannah Colon was accessing various law enforcement databases that are restricted,” Deputy Stephanie Early with the sheriff’s office said.
After the sheriff’s office started looking into Colon’s use of law enforcement databases, a probable cause affidavit says they questioned Colon about running two different names through the Driver and Vehicle Information Databases on three different dates. The names belonged to her husband and her husband’s ex-wife, the report says.
The affidavit says in April 2023, she looked at the ex-wife’s record on things like vehicles, addresses, transaction details and driver history.
According to the affidavit, she told deputies it was to access the woman’s address to apply for an order of protection against her, which she did in June 2023.
The deputy pointed out she could have gotten the information from her husband.
The sheriff’s office says the use is concerning.
“We are only supposed to use our databases for authorized use only,” Deputy Early said. “So the fact that there are employees, that this could happen, is very concerning for us, and we make sure that this does not happen again.”
Something Colon isn’t facing charges for, but the probable cause affidavit says “compounded” investigators’ suspicions, was observations from coworkers. The document says Colon had recently asked a homicide detective questions about an upcoming homicide trial while wearing new glasses that have the capability to record. It says that coworkers knew Colon was Facebook friends with the defendant in that trial, Darion McGee, who the report says is a suspect in two Lake County homicides.
One appears to be the killing of Mustafa Connelly. Connelly was found shot and set on fire in a vacant lot in the Leesburg area in December 2021. McGee pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder charges in May 2023. According to court records, that trial was set to start Tuesday.
The sheriff’s office couldn’t say if they believed Colon shared any information with anyone involved in the case. When asked if Colon’s questions regarding the trial were being investigated any further, Early said, “The investigation is still ongoing. She is on unpaid leave at the moment.”
Colon was released on bond. WESH 2 attempted to contact Colon but did not hear back Tuesday night.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said nonprosecution policies in Orlando are putting families at risk. During a news conference Friday, Uthmeier said Orlando has a pattern of “soft-on-crime policies.”Uthmeier called out 9th Judicial Circuit State Attorney Monique Worrell for not pressing charges on “gruesome and horrific” child predator cases.In one case, a man on a park bench was accused of masturbating while facing multiple kids playing. Uthmeier said that, although there was video evidence and testimonies from people, Worrell decided that charges did not need to be brought. “She gave this man a free walk in the park, and now other kids are in jeopardy,” Uthmeier said. In another case, a suspect was accused of sharing videos depicting the sexual exploitation of children. However, Worrell dropped all charges, according to Uthmeier. “Soft-on-crime policies do not work,” Uthmeier said. Uthmeier said child predators should be prosecuted to the fullest.In August, Worrell reported a 21% decrease in the backlog of nonarrest cases, though more than 10,000 cases remain. She emphasized the need for increased funding to retain prosecutors and improve trial statistics.Worrell responded during her own news conference, addressing the attorney general’s claims. “It is an outright reckless disregard for the truth to suggest that I have non-prosecution policies on the books,” Worrell said. She defended her office’s handling of the cases mentioned by Uthmeier, sharing notes from the attorney on the Chapman case. “I’m not standing before you today telling you that what happened in that park was wrong. But I am standing before you today telling you that I trust the word of the attorney who was assigned to this case when he said, although those actions were wrong, he could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they were illegal,” Worrell said.Worrell criticized the attorney general’s approach, stating that instead of collaborating with her office to address crime, Uthmeier’s conferences spread misinformation and prioritize politics over public safety.Related stories below:
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said nonprosecution policies in Orlando are putting families at risk.
During a news conference Friday, Uthmeier said Orlando has a pattern of “soft on crime policies.”
Uthmeier called out 9th Judicial Circuit State Attorney Monique Worrell for not pressing charges on “gruesome and horrific” child predator cases.
In one case, a man on a park bench was accused of masturbating while facing multiple kids playing.
Uthmeier said that, although there was video evidence and testimonies from people, Worrell decided that charges did not need to be brought.
“She gave this man a free walk in the park, and now other kids are in jeopardy,” Uthmeier said.
In another case, a suspect was accused of sharing videos depicting the sexual exploitation of children. However, Worrell dropped all charges, according to Uthmeier.
“Soft-on-crime policies do not work,” Uthmeier said.
Uthmeier said child predators should be prosecuted to the fullest.
In August, Worrell reported a 21% decrease in the backlog of nonarrest cases, though more than 10,000 cases remain.
She emphasized the need for increased funding to retain prosecutors and improve trial statistics.
Worrell responded during her own news conference, addressing the attorney general’s claims.
“It is an outright reckless disregard for the truth to suggest that I have non-prosecution policies on the books,” Worrell said.
She defended her office’s handling of the cases mentioned by Uthmeier, sharing notes from the attorney on the Chapman case.
“I’m not standing before you today telling you that what happened in that park was wrong. But I am standing before you today telling you that I trust the word of the attorney who was assigned to this case when he said although those actions were wrong, he could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they were illegal,” Worrell said.
Worrell criticized the attorney general’s approach, stating that instead of collaborating with her office to address crime, Uthmeier’s conferences spread misinformation and prioritize politics over public safety.
President Donald Trump returned to the United Nations on Tuesday to boast of his second-term foreign policy achievements and lash out at the world body as a feckless institution, while warning Europe it would be ruined if it doesn’t turn away from a “double-tailed monster” of ill-conceived migration and green energy policies.His roughly hour-long speech was both grievance-filled and self-congratulatory as he used the platform to praise himself and lament that some of his fellow world leaders’ countries were “going to hell.”The address was also just the latest reminder for U.S. allies and foes that the United States — after a four-year interim under the more internationalist President Joe Biden — has returned to the unapologetically “America First” posture under Trump.“What is the purpose of the United Nations?” Trump said. “The U.N. has such tremendous potential. I’ve always said it. It has such tremendous, tremendous potential. But it’s not even coming close to living up to that potential.”World leaders listened closely to his remarks at the U.N. General Assembly as Trump has already moved quickly to diminish U.S. support for the world body in his first eight months in office. Even in his first term, he was no fan of the flavor of multilateralism that the United Nations espouses.After his latest inauguration, he issued a first-day executive order withdrawing the U.S. from the World Health Organization. That was followed by his move to end U.S. participation in the U.N. Human Rights Council, and ordering up a review of U.S. membership in hundreds of intergovernmental organizations aimed at determining whether they align with the priorities of his “America First” agenda.Trump escalated that criticism on Tuesday, saying the international body’s “empty words don’t solve wars.”Trump offered a weave of jarring juxtapositions in his address to the assembly.He trumpeted himself as a peacemaker and enumerated successes of his administration’s efforts in several hotspots around the globe. At the same, Trump heralded his decisions to order the U.S. military to carry out strikes on Iran and more recently against alleged drug smugglers from Venezuela and argued that globalists are on the verge of destroying successful nations.The U.S. president’s speech is typically among the most anticipated moments of the annual assembly. This one comes at one of the most volatile moments in the world body’s 80-year-old history. Global leaders are being tested by intractable wars in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan, uncertainty about the economic and social impact of emerging artificial intelligence technology, and anxiety about Trump’s antipathy for the global body.Trump has also raised new questions about the American use of military force in his return to the White House, after ordering U.S. airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in June and a trio of strikes this month on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea.The latter strikes, including at least two fatal attacks on boats that originated from Venezuela, has raised speculation in Caracas that Trump is looking to set the stage for the ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.Some U.S. lawmakers and human rights advocates say that Trump is effectively carrying out extrajudicial killings by using U.S. forces to lethally target alleged drug smugglers instead of interdicting the suspected vessels, seizing any drugs and prosecuting the suspects in U.S. courts.Warnings about ‘green scam’ and migrationTrump touted his administration’s policies allowing for expanded drilling for oil and natural gas in the United States, and aggressively cracking down on illegal immigration, implicitly suggesting more countries should follow suit.He sharply warned that European nations that have more welcoming migration policies and commit to expensive energy projects aimed at reducing their carbon footprint were causing irreparable harm to their economies and cultures.“I’m telling you that if you don’t get away from the ‘green energy’ scam, your country is going to fail,” Trump said. “If you don’t stop people that you’ve never seen before that you have nothing in common with your country is going to fail.”Trump added, “I love the people of Europe, and I hate to see it being devastated by energy and immigration. This double-tailed monster destroys everything in its wake, and they cannot let that happen any longer.”The passage of the wide-ranging address elicited some groans and uncomfortable laughter from delegates.Trump to hold one-on-one talks with world leadersTrump touted “the renewal of American strength around the world” and his efforts to help end several wars. He peppered his speech with criticism of global institutions doing too little to end war and solve the world’s biggest problems.General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock on Tuesday said that despite all the internal and external challenges facing the organization, it is not the time to walk away.“Sometimes we could’ve done more, but we cannot let this dishearten us. If we stop doing the right things, evil will prevail,” Baerbock said in her opening remarks.Following his speech, Trump met with Secretary-General António Guterres, telling the top U.N. official that the U.S. is behind the global body “100%” amid fears among members that he’s edging toward a full retreat.The White House says Trump will also meet on Tuesday with the leaders of Ukraine, Argentina and the European Union. He will also hold a group meeting with officials from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Turkey, Pakistan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.He’ll return to Washington after hosting a reception Tuesday night with more than 100 invited world leaders.Gaza and Ukraine cast shadow over Trump speechTrump has struggled to deliver on his 2024 campaign promises to quickly end the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. His response has been also relatively muted as some longtime American allies are using this year’s General Assembly to spotlight the growing international campaign for recognition of a Palestinian state, a move that the U.S. and Israel vehemently oppose.France became the latest nation to recognize Palestinian statehood on Monday at the start of a high-profile meeting at the U.N. aimed at galvanizing support for a two-state solution to the Mideast conflict. More nations are expected to follow.Trump sharply criticized the statehood recognition push.“The rewards would be too great for Hamas terrorists,” Trump said. “This would be a reward for these horrible atrocities, including Oct. 7.”Trump also addressed Russia’s war in Ukraine.It’s been more than a month since Trump’s Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin and a White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and key European leaders. Following those meetings, Trump announced that he was arranging for direct talks between Putin and Zelenskyy. But Putin hasn’t shown any interest in meeting with Zelenskyy and Moscow has only intensified its bombardment of Ukraine since the Alaska summit.European leaders as well as American lawmakers, including some key Republican allies of Trump, have urged the president to dial up stronger sanctions on Russia. Trump, meanwhile, has pressed Europe to stop buying Russian oil, the engine feeding Putin’s war machine.Trump said a “very strong round of powerful tariffs” would “stop the bloodshed, I believe, very quickly.” He repeated his calls on Europe to “step it up” and stop buying Russian oil.Trump has Oslo dreamsDespite his struggles to end the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, Trump has made clear that he wants to be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize, repeatedly making the spurious claim that he’s “ended seven wars” since he returned to office.“Everyone says that I should get the Nobel Prize — but for me, the real prize will be the sons and daughters who live to grow up because millions of people are no longer being killed in endless wars,” Trump offered.He again highlighted his administration’s efforts to end conflicts, including between Israel and Iran, India and Pakistan, Egypt and Sudan, Rwanda and the Democratic Congo, Armenia and Azerbaijan, and Cambodia and Thailand.“It’s too bad that I had to do these things instead of the United Nations doing them,” Trump said. “Sadly, in all cases, the United Nations did not even try to help in any of them.”Although Trump helped mediate relations among many of these nations, experts say his impact isn’t as clear cut as he claims.___AP journalists Tracy Brown and Darlene Superville in Washington and Bill Barrow in Atlanta contributed to this report.
UNITED NATIONS —
President Donald Trump returned to the United Nations on Tuesday to boast of his second-term foreign policy achievements and lash out at the world body as a feckless institution, while warning Europe it would be ruined if it doesn’t turn away from a “double-tailed monster” of ill-conceived migration and green energy policies.
His roughly hour-long speech was both grievance-filled and self-congratulatory as he used the platform to praise himself and lament that some of his fellow world leaders’ countries were “going to hell.”
The address was also just the latest reminder for U.S. allies and foes that the United States — after a four-year interim under the more internationalist President Joe Biden — has returned to the unapologetically “America First” posture under Trump.
“What is the purpose of the United Nations?” Trump said. “The U.N. has such tremendous potential. I’ve always said it. It has such tremendous, tremendous potential. But it’s not even coming close to living up to that potential.”
World leaders listened closely to his remarks at the U.N. General Assembly as Trump has already moved quickly to diminish U.S. support for the world body in his first eight months in office. Even in his first term, he was no fan of the flavor of multilateralism that the United Nations espouses.
After his latest inauguration, he issued a first-day executive order withdrawing the U.S. from the World Health Organization. That was followed by his move to end U.S. participation in the U.N. Human Rights Council, and ordering up a review of U.S. membership in hundreds of intergovernmental organizations aimed at determining whether they align with the priorities of his “America First” agenda.
Trump escalated that criticism on Tuesday, saying the international body’s “empty words don’t solve wars.”
Trump offered a weave of jarring juxtapositions in his address to the assembly.
He trumpeted himself as a peacemaker and enumerated successes of his administration’s efforts in several hotspots around the globe. At the same, Trump heralded his decisions to order the U.S. military to carry out strikes on Iran and more recently against alleged drug smugglers from Venezuela and argued that globalists are on the verge of destroying successful nations.
The U.S. president’s speech is typically among the most anticipated moments of the annual assembly. This one comes at one of the most volatile moments in the world body’s 80-year-old history. Global leaders are being tested by intractable wars in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan, uncertainty about the economic and social impact of emerging artificial intelligence technology, and anxiety about Trump’s antipathy for the global body.
Trump has also raised new questions about the American use of military force in his return to the White House, after ordering U.S. airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in June and a trio of strikes this month on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea.
The latter strikes, including at least two fatal attacks on boats that originated from Venezuela, has raised speculation in Caracas that Trump is looking to set the stage for the ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Some U.S. lawmakers and human rights advocates say that Trump is effectively carrying out extrajudicial killings by using U.S. forces to lethally target alleged drug smugglers instead of interdicting the suspected vessels, seizing any drugs and prosecuting the suspects in U.S. courts.
Warnings about ‘green scam’ and migration
Trump touted his administration’s policies allowing for expanded drilling for oil and natural gas in the United States, and aggressively cracking down on illegal immigration, implicitly suggesting more countries should follow suit.
He sharply warned that European nations that have more welcoming migration policies and commit to expensive energy projects aimed at reducing their carbon footprint were causing irreparable harm to their economies and cultures.
“I’m telling you that if you don’t get away from the ‘green energy’ scam, your country is going to fail,” Trump said. “If you don’t stop people that you’ve never seen before that you have nothing in common with your country is going to fail.”
Trump added, “I love the people of Europe, and I hate to see it being devastated by energy and immigration. This double-tailed monster destroys everything in its wake, and they cannot let that happen any longer.”
The passage of the wide-ranging address elicited some groans and uncomfortable laughter from delegates.
Trump to hold one-on-one talks with world leaders
Trump touted “the renewal of American strength around the world” and his efforts to help end several wars. He peppered his speech with criticism of global institutions doing too little to end war and solve the world’s biggest problems.
General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock on Tuesday said that despite all the internal and external challenges facing the organization, it is not the time to walk away.
“Sometimes we could’ve done more, but we cannot let this dishearten us. If we stop doing the right things, evil will prevail,” Baerbock said in her opening remarks.
Following his speech, Trump met with Secretary-General António Guterres, telling the top U.N. official that the U.S. is behind the global body “100%” amid fears among members that he’s edging toward a full retreat.
The White House says Trump will also meet on Tuesday with the leaders of Ukraine, Argentina and the European Union. He will also hold a group meeting with officials from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Turkey, Pakistan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.
He’ll return to Washington after hosting a reception Tuesday night with more than 100 invited world leaders.
Gaza and Ukraine cast shadow over Trump speech
Trump has struggled to deliver on his 2024 campaign promises to quickly end the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. His response has been also relatively muted as some longtime American allies are using this year’s General Assembly to spotlight the growing international campaign for recognition of a Palestinian state, a move that the U.S. and Israel vehemently oppose.
France became the latest nation to recognize Palestinian statehood on Monday at the start of a high-profile meeting at the U.N. aimed at galvanizing support for a two-state solution to the Mideast conflict. More nations are expected to follow.
Trump sharply criticized the statehood recognition push.
“The rewards would be too great for Hamas terrorists,” Trump said. “This would be a reward for these horrible atrocities, including Oct. 7.”
Trump also addressed Russia’s war in Ukraine.
It’s been more than a month since Trump’s Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin and a White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and key European leaders. Following those meetings, Trump announced that he was arranging for direct talks between Putin and Zelenskyy. But Putin hasn’t shown any interest in meeting with Zelenskyy and Moscow has only intensified its bombardment of Ukraine since the Alaska summit.
European leaders as well as American lawmakers, including some key Republican allies of Trump, have urged the president to dial up stronger sanctions on Russia. Trump, meanwhile, has pressed Europe to stop buying Russian oil, the engine feeding Putin’s war machine.
Trump said a “very strong round of powerful tariffs” would “stop the bloodshed, I believe, very quickly.” He repeated his calls on Europe to “step it up” and stop buying Russian oil.
Trump has Oslo dreams
Despite his struggles to end the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, Trump has made clear that he wants to be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize, repeatedly making the spurious claim that he’s “ended seven wars” since he returned to office.
“Everyone says that I should get the Nobel Prize — but for me, the real prize will be the sons and daughters who live to grow up because millions of people are no longer being killed in endless wars,” Trump offered.
He again highlighted his administration’s efforts to end conflicts, including between Israel and Iran, India and Pakistan, Egypt and Sudan, Rwanda and the Democratic Congo, Armenia and Azerbaijan, and Cambodia and Thailand.
“It’s too bad that I had to do these things instead of the United Nations doing them,” Trump said. “Sadly, in all cases, the United Nations did not even try to help in any of them.”
Although Trump helped mediate relations among many of these nations, experts say his impact isn’t as clear cut as he claims.
___
AP journalists Tracy Brown and Darlene Superville in Washington and Bill Barrow in Atlanta contributed to this report.
Watched by the world, President Donald Trump returns to the United Nations on Tuesday to deliver a wide-ranging address on his second-term foreign policy achievements and lament that “globalist institutions have significantly decayed the world order,” according to the White House.Watch live video from the United Nations in the video player aboveWorld leaders will be listening closely to his remarks at the U.N. General Assembly as Trump has already moved quickly to diminish U.S. support for the world body in his first eight months in office. Even in his first term, he was no fan of the flavor of multilateralism that the United Nations espouses.After his latest inauguration, he issued a first-day executive order withdrawing the U.S. from the World Health Organization. That was followed by his move to end U.S. participation in the U.N. Human Rights Council, and ordering up a review of U.S. membership in hundreds of intergovernmental organizations aimed at determining whether they align with the priorities of his “America First” agenda.“There are great hopes for it, but it’s not being well run, to be honest,” Trump said of the U.N. last week.The U.S. president’s speech is typically among the most anticipated moments of the annual assembly. This one comes at one of the most volatile moments in the world body’s 80-year-old history. Global leaders are being tested by intractable wars in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan, uncertainty about the economic and social impact of emerging artificial intelligence technology, and anxiety about Trump’s antipathy for the global body.Trump has also raised new questions about the American use of military force in his return to the White House, after ordering U.S. airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in June and a trio of strikes this month on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea.The latter strikes, including at least two fatal attacks on boats that originated from Venezuela, has raised speculation in Caracas that Trump is looking to set the stage for the ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.Some U.S. lawmakers and human rights advocates say that Trump is effectively carrying out extrajudicial killings by using U.S. forces to lethally target alleged drug smugglers instead of interdicting the suspected vessels, seizing any drugs and prosecuting the suspects in U.S. courts.“This is by far the most stressed the U.N. system has ever been in its 80 years,” said Anjali K. Dayal, a professor of international politics at Fordham University in New York.Trump to hold one-on-one talks with world leadersWhite House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump would tout “the renewal of American strength around the world” and his efforts to help end several wars.“The president will also touch upon how globalist institutions have significantly decayed the world order, and he will articulate his straightforward and constructive vision for the world,” Leavitt said.Following his speech, Trump will hold one-on-one meetings with U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres and the leaders of Ukraine, Argentina and the European Union. He will also hold a group meeting with officials from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Turkey, Pakistan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.He’ll return to Washington after hosting a reception Tuesday night with more than 100 invited world leaders.Gaza and Ukraine cast shadow over Trump speechTrump has struggled to deliver on his 2024 campaign promises to quickly end the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. His response has been also relatively muted as some longtime American allies are using this year’s General Assembly to spotlight the growing international campaign for recognition of a Palestinian state, a move that the U.S. and Israel vehemently oppose.France became the latest nation to recognize Palestinian statehood on Monday at the start of a high-profile meeting at the U.N. aimed at galvanizing support for a two-state solution to the Mideast conflict. More nations are expected to follow.Leavitt said Trump sees the push as “just more talk and not enough action from some of our friends and allies.”Trump, for his part, in the lead-up to Tuesday’s address has tried to keep focus on getting agreement on a ceasefire that leads Hamas to releasing its remaining 48 hostages, including 20 still believed be alive.“I’d like to see a diplomatic solution,” Trump told reporters Sunday evening. “There’s a lot of anger and a lot of hatred, you know that, and there has been for a lot of years … but hopefully we’ll get something done.”Leaders in the room will also be eager to hear what Trump has to say about Russia’s war in Ukraine.It’s been more than a month since Trump’s Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin and a White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and key European leaders. Following those meetings, Trump announced that he was arranging for direct talks between Putin and Zelenskyy. But Putin hasn’t shown any interest in meeting with Zelenskyy and Moscow has only intensified its bombardment of Ukraine since the Alaska summit.European leaders as well as American lawmakers, including some key Republican allies of Trump, have urged the president to dial up stronger sanctions on Russia. Trump, meanwhile, has pressed Europe to stop buying Russian oil, the engine feeding Putin’s war machine.Trump has Oslo dreamsDespite his struggles to end the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, Trump has made clear that he wants to be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize, repeatedly making the claim that he’s “ended seven wars” since he returned to office.He points to his administration’s efforts to end conflicts between Israel and Iran, India and Pakistan, Egypt and Sudan, Rwanda and the Democratic Congo, Armenia and Azerbaijan, and Cambodia and Thailand.Although Trump helped mediate relations among many of these nations, experts say his impact isn’t as clear cut as he claims.Still, Trump’s Nobel ambitions could have impact on the tenor of his address, said Mark Montgomery, an analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington.“His speech is going to be driven by how much he really believes he has a chance of getting a Nobel Peace Prize,” Montgomery said. “If he thinks that’s still something he can do, then I think he knows you don’t go into the U.N. and drop a grenade down the tank hatch and shut it, right?”___AP journalists Tracy Brown and Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.
NEW YORK —
Watched by the world, President Donald Trump returns to the United Nations on Tuesday to deliver a wide-ranging address on his second-term foreign policy achievements and lament that “globalist institutions have significantly decayed the world order,” according to the White House.
Watch live video from the United Nations in the video player above
World leaders will be listening closely to his remarks at the U.N. General Assembly as Trump has already moved quickly to diminish U.S. support for the world body in his first eight months in office. Even in his first term, he was no fan of the flavor of multilateralism that the United Nations espouses.
After his latest inauguration, he issued a first-day executive order withdrawing the U.S. from the World Health Organization. That was followed by his move to end U.S. participation in the U.N. Human Rights Council, and ordering up a review of U.S. membership in hundreds of intergovernmental organizations aimed at determining whether they align with the priorities of his “America First” agenda.
“There are great hopes for it, but it’s not being well run, to be honest,” Trump said of the U.N. last week.
The U.S. president’s speech is typically among the most anticipated moments of the annual assembly. This one comes at one of the most volatile moments in the world body’s 80-year-old history. Global leaders are being tested by intractable wars in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan, uncertainty about the economic and social impact of emerging artificial intelligence technology, and anxiety about Trump’s antipathy for the global body.
Trump has also raised new questions about the American use of military force in his return to the White House, after ordering U.S. airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in June and a trio of strikes this month on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea.
The latter strikes, including at least two fatal attacks on boats that originated from Venezuela, has raised speculation in Caracas that Trump is looking to set the stage for the ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Some U.S. lawmakers and human rights advocates say that Trump is effectively carrying out extrajudicial killings by using U.S. forces to lethally target alleged drug smugglers instead of interdicting the suspected vessels, seizing any drugs and prosecuting the suspects in U.S. courts.
“This is by far the most stressed the U.N. system has ever been in its 80 years,” said Anjali K. Dayal, a professor of international politics at Fordham University in New York.
Trump to hold one-on-one talks with world leaders
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump would tout “the renewal of American strength around the world” and his efforts to help end several wars.
“The president will also touch upon how globalist institutions have significantly decayed the world order, and he will articulate his straightforward and constructive vision for the world,” Leavitt said.
Following his speech, Trump will hold one-on-one meetings with U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres and the leaders of Ukraine, Argentina and the European Union. He will also hold a group meeting with officials from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Turkey, Pakistan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.
He’ll return to Washington after hosting a reception Tuesday night with more than 100 invited world leaders.
Gaza and Ukraine cast shadow over Trump speech
Trump has struggled to deliver on his 2024 campaign promises to quickly end the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. His response has been also relatively muted as some longtime American allies are using this year’s General Assembly to spotlight the growing international campaign for recognition of a Palestinian state, a move that the U.S. and Israel vehemently oppose.
France became the latest nation to recognize Palestinian statehood on Monday at the start of a high-profile meeting at the U.N. aimed at galvanizing support for a two-state solution to the Mideast conflict. More nations are expected to follow.
Leavitt said Trump sees the push as “just more talk and not enough action from some of our friends and allies.”
Trump, for his part, in the lead-up to Tuesday’s address has tried to keep focus on getting agreement on a ceasefire that leads Hamas to releasing its remaining 48 hostages, including 20 still believed be alive.
“I’d like to see a diplomatic solution,” Trump told reporters Sunday evening. “There’s a lot of anger and a lot of hatred, you know that, and there has been for a lot of years … but hopefully we’ll get something done.”
Leaders in the room will also be eager to hear what Trump has to say about Russia’s war in Ukraine.
It’s been more than a month since Trump’s Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin and a White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and key European leaders. Following those meetings, Trump announced that he was arranging for direct talks between Putin and Zelenskyy. But Putin hasn’t shown any interest in meeting with Zelenskyy and Moscow has only intensified its bombardment of Ukraine since the Alaska summit.
European leaders as well as American lawmakers, including some key Republican allies of Trump, have urged the president to dial up stronger sanctions on Russia. Trump, meanwhile, has pressed Europe to stop buying Russian oil, the engine feeding Putin’s war machine.
Trump has Oslo dreams
Despite his struggles to end the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, Trump has made clear that he wants to be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize, repeatedly making the claim that he’s “ended seven wars” since he returned to office.
He points to his administration’s efforts to end conflicts between Israel and Iran, India and Pakistan, Egypt and Sudan, Rwanda and the Democratic Congo, Armenia and Azerbaijan, and Cambodia and Thailand.
Although Trump helped mediate relations among many of these nations, experts say his impact isn’t as clear cut as he claims.
Still, Trump’s Nobel ambitions could have impact on the tenor of his address, said Mark Montgomery, an analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington.
“His speech is going to be driven by how much he really believes he has a chance of getting a Nobel Peace Prize,” Montgomery said. “If he thinks that’s still something he can do, then I think he knows you don’t go into the U.N. and drop a grenade down the tank hatch and shut it, right?”
___
AP journalists Tracy Brown and Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.
Gov. Ron DeSantis, along with the state’s Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia, slammed Orange County officials in a news conference Wednesday for their lack of cooperation in a DOGE audit. Officials accused county employees of tampering with emails related to the audit, removing keywords related to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI).Full news conference belowAmong their findings, Ingoglia said, “The county was giving excessive raises to their employees and possibly tampering with documents.” The CFO announced he will be issuing investigative subpoenas related to five DEI grants in Orange County.Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings released the following statement: “Orange County Government fully cooperated with the Florida DOGE audit team, providing all the data and documents requested. No employee was instructed to alter, change or delete any documents.While our employees may have read from or referred to notes or documents being discussed by the DOGE team, employees were not scripted in their remarks.The state has offered no evidence to support its allegation that we were hiding information or acting without integrity. We welcome the opportunity for full public transparency on this issue.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis, along with the state’s Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia, slammed Orange County officials in a news conference Wednesday for their lack of cooperation in a DOGE audit.
Officials accused county employees of tampering with emails related to the audit, removing keywords related to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI).
Full news conference below
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Among their findings, Ingoglia said, “The county was giving excessive raises to their employees and possibly tampering with documents.”
The CFO announced he will be issuing investigative subpoenas related to five DEI grants in Orange County.
Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings released the following statement:
“Orange County Government fully cooperated with the Florida DOGE audit team, providing all the data and documents requested. No employee was instructed to alter, change or delete any documents.
While our employees may have read from or referred to notes or documents being discussed by the DOGE team, employees were not scripted in their remarks.
The state has offered no evidence to support its allegation that we were hiding information or acting without integrity. We welcome the opportunity for full public transparency on this issue.”
Flagler County has received millions of dollars in federal funds to help fortify its coast by rebuilding dunes lost during Hurricane Milton.Flagler Beach received nearly $9 million in federal funds. The new dunes will stand about 14 feet tall, much larger than before. Construction will start in the Malacompra area and move north toward Marineland. The county’s coastal engineer stated that, because a similar project is already underway to the south, they were able to move quickly and are working to amend the current contract to retain the same contractors. She said it took a while to get these funds approved, but she is excited to have the engineers finally design these new dunes. Construction is scheduled to start on November 1 and is expected to take approximately three to four months to complete. The hope is that once this project is completed, the dunes will be able to withstand a Category 2 hurricane.
Flagler County has received millions of dollars in federal funds to help fortify its coast by rebuilding dunes lost during Hurricane Milton.
Flagler Beach received nearly $9 million in federal funds.
The new dunes will stand about 14 feet tall, much larger than before. Construction will start in the Malacompra area and move north toward Marineland.
The county’s coastal engineer stated that, because a similar project is already underway to the south, they were able to move quickly and are working to amend the current contract to retain the same contractors.
She said it took a while to get these funds approved, but she is excited to have the engineers finally design these new dunes.
Construction is scheduled to start on November 1 and is expected to take approximately three to four months to complete.
The hope is that once this project is completed, the dunes will be able to withstand a Category 2 hurricane.
Gov. Ron DeSantis announced a lawsuit against textbook publishers on Tuesday. DeSantis said the lawsuit was filed against McGraw-Hill LLC and Savvas Learning Company LLC. They were accused of systematically overcharging Florida school districts for instructional materials in violation of state law. DeSantis was joined by Attorney General James Uthmeier and Anastasios Kamoutsas, Commissioner of the Florida Department of Education. >> The story will be updated.
Gov. Ron DeSantis announced a lawsuit against textbook publishers on Tuesday.
DeSantis said the lawsuit was filed against McGraw-Hill LLC and Savvas Learning Company LLC.
They were accused of systematically overcharging Florida school districts for instructional materials in violation of state law.
DeSantis was joined by Attorney General James Uthmeier and Anastasios Kamoutsas, Commissioner of the Florida Department of Education.
After decades of resistance, Carmel-by-the-Sea is about to address some of its residents’ biggest frustrations.
Quite literally.
The moneyed little town, where homes and businesses have no street addresses, soon will have numbers assigned to its buildings, forgoing a cherished local tradition after too many complaints about lost packages, trouble setting up utilities and banking accounts, and other problems.
The Carmel-by-the-Sea City Council approved establishing street addresses in a 3-2 vote earlier this month, with proponents citing public safety concerns and the need to abide by the state fire code, which requires buildings to be numbered.
“Do we need to wait for someone to die in order to decide that this is the right thing to do? It is the law,” said Councilmember Karen Ferlito, who voted in favor of addresses.
Rather than street numbers, residents in the town of 3,200 have long used directional descriptors: City Hall is on the east side of Monte Verde Street between Ocean and 7th avenues. And they give their homes whimsical names such as Sea Castle, Somewhere and Faux Chateau.
There is no home mail delivery. Locals pick up their parcels at the downtown post office, where, many say, serendipitous run-ins with neighbors are an essential part of the small-town charm.
For more than 100 years, residents fought to keep it that way, once threatening to secede from California if addresses were imposed. They argued that the lack of house numbers — along with other quirks, such as no streetlights or sidewalks in residential areas — added to the vaunted “village character.”
“We are losing this place, day by day and week by week, from people who want to modernize us, who want to take us to a new level, when we want to stay where we are,” Neal Kruse, co-chair of the Carmel Preservation Assn., said during the July 9 City Council meeting at which addresses were approved.
Carol Oaks stands in front of her home, which is named “Somewhere” and has no formal address. Carmel-by-the-Sea will soon number its homes and businesses.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
The debate over street numbers has simmered for years and intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic, when people began shopping online more frequently and struggled to get their packages delivered.
Some residents and tourists worry that if they have an accident or a medical issue, emergency responders will have trouble finding them. Others have had trouble receiving mail-order prescriptions and medical equipment.
“This is a life-and-death situation in my life and my family,” resident Deanna Dickman told the City Council. “I want a street address that people can find on GPS and get there, and my wife can get the medication she needs.”
Dickman said her wife needs a shot that comes through the mail and must be refrigerated. If she can’t get it delivered, she has to travel to an infusion center and get her medication every 30 days “so she can breathe,” Dickman said.
Dickman once had her own temperature-controlled medication “tossed over a fence a block away.” The property owner was not home, and it spoiled.
Resident Susan Bjerre said she once needed oxygen delivered to her house for someone who had just gotten out of the hospital. The delivery driver could not find the residence, so she said: “I will be in the street. I will wave you down.”
“This is going to sound really snarky, but I think people who oppose instituting an address system don’t realize how inconsiderate they are to everyone else,” Bjerre said.
Another speaker, Alice Cory, said she worried that implementing addresses in Carmel-by-the-Sea — long a haven for artists, writers and poets — “would just make us another town along the coast.”
In the one-square-mile town, “the police know where everybody is,” and fire officials get to people quickly because there are so few streets, she said.
“Let’s keep it that way, and let’s keep the sweetness of this little town, because people know Carmel for a reason,” she said.
Neal Kruse, center, with Karyl Hall and her dog, Bubbles, chat with a resident at the Carmel Preservation Assn. booth at a farmers market. Kruse and Hall worry street addresses will hurt the town’s character.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Emily Garay, a city administrative analyst, told the council that while local authorities might be familiar with Carmel-by-the-Sea’s unconventional navigational practices, other emergency responders — such as the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection or Monterey County’s contracted ambulance provider — might struggle to quickly figure out where people live.
The California Fire Code requires buildings to have and display addresses. But Carmel-by-the-Sea has not enforced the provision.
“I believe, as a professional firefighter for over 37 years [with] a lot of experience in emergency response, that if the question is, ‘Is it more advantageous to have building numbers identified?’ Yes, absolutely,” Andrew Miller, chief of the Monterey Fire Department, told the council.
Residents opposed to street addresses have said they fear that numbering houses would lead to home mail delivery — which, in turn, could trigger the closure of the Carmel-by-the-Sea post office.
In January, David Rupert, a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service told The Times that the post office had “been serving the local community since 1889” and there were no plans to close it. (The lobby for the post office was red-tagged this spring after a septuagenarian crashed her red Tesla through the front windows.)
Garay said addresses would not trigger home delivery.
Before voting against addresses, Mayor Dave Potter said he was “concerned about the fact that we’re kind of losing our character of our community along the way here” and that it had become the nature of the community “to fight over little things.”
But Ferlito said she had received “piles of emails from residents” who wanted addresses and worried about being found in a crisis.
“If we’re saying we will lose our quaintness because we have an address, I think that’s a false narrative,” she said. “This is more than quaintness. This is life emergencies.”
The highly anticipated launch of Payday 3 was turned sour quickly as the game was plagued with issues in the eyes of the players, with problems like server failures, features missing and no offline mode.
Now, four months after its launch in a post titled “Our Plans Going Forward,” the developers of Payday 3 have made a statement regarding the struggling game’s future.
Image Source: Deep Silver via Twinfinite
Right off the bat, the devs were sure to address the fact that they know players are not happy with Payday 3. It’s not unlike a studio to try to dodge the negative press as best as possible and try to paint themselves in a positive light, but the studio has been aware of people’s feelings since the launch of the game and can’t really hide from them.
Luckily, as ominous as the post’s title may sound, Starbreeze Studios doesn’t seem like they plan on pulling the plug “The Day Before – style” anytime soon. With the amount of feedback the studio has received in forums, comments and social media, it would be a shame for the developers to call it a wash and give up on the game.
The team on Twitter/X has even gotten a nickname — payday twitter man — as the community has had to have such close contact with the studio in order to communicate the slew of problems it was faced with. Starbreeze Studios has spent the time since launch doing a great deal of saying how they’re taking feedback into account, and much of the announcement on January 17 echoes the same sentiment.
The studio then goes on to claim that they have assembled a “strike team” of some of their veteran developers in order to make the game reach people’s initial expectations. This team consists of people from all different departments of the studio, being the community, design, production and communication teams, with the hope of properly taking all of that feedback and putting it to work.
They close out the post with a time frame to look forward to finding out more; February 2024. Whether this announcement will come early or late in the month is still yet to be seen, but they claim that it will detail future improvements to Payday 3 and when players can expect them to roll out.
While this seems like a great promise on the surface, it’s only backed by months of players constantly finding issues, bugs and matchmaking errors within the game. It’s hard to say for sure whether this “strike team” will actually make a difference in the aspects of Payday 3 that consumers are really looking for, but it seems like a step in the right direction.
About the author
Nick Rivera
Nick Rivera graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 2021 studying Digital Media and started as a Freelance Writer with Twinfinite in early 2023. Nick plays anything from Halo to Stardew Valley to Peggle, but is a sucker for a magnetic story.
